Method of treating nickel-copper matte.



rrnn STATES PATENT FFICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 3, 1906.

Application filed September so. 1903- semi No. 175.189;

To all whom ii? may concern:

Be it known that I, WOOLSEY MoA. JOHN- soN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Iola, in the county of Allen and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Treating Nickel-Copper Matte, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is a method of treating nickel-copper matte for the pur ose of separating therefrom some or all of t e contained metals in commercially available form. The method will be described by reference to one specific example thereof.

The copper-nickel matte in the specific example to be described may contain thirtynine per cent. of nickel, thirty-nine per cent. of copper, substantially one per cent. each of iron and cobalt, and twenty per cent. of sulfur, together with small proportions of platinum and palladium. This matte is crushed, ground to eighty mesh, placed in dissolving or leaching vats of any suitable construction, preferably provided with agitators, and subjected therein to the action of a heated solution of hydrochloric acid, preferably of about ten per cent. concentration and preferably maintained at a temperature approximating 100 centigrade. The leachingvats may be provided with any suitable means for heating the acid solution and are preferably covered and provided with means for conducting away the sulfureted hydrogen formed by reaction of the acid upon the sulfids of the matte. The solution thus obtained contains nickel, cobalt, and iron as chlorids. Said solution is freed from cobalt and iron, preferably by treatment with chlorin and sodium carbonate or by the action of hypochlorites, according to known methods. The cobalt is recovered from the precipil tate as oxid (C0 0,) and may be sold as suc The residual nickel-chlorid solution is concentrated, if-necessary, brought to neutrality or to a faintly acid reaction, and electrolyzed with insoluble anodes, the solutionbeing preferably maintained during the electrolysis at a temperature of about centigrade. Nickel is thereby preci itated in reguline form, and the evolved c lorinis utilized for the manufacture of bleaching-powder or otherwise.

The residue from the above-described acid treatment may contain seventy-five per cent. of copper, five per cent. of nickel, and some twenty per cent. of sulfur. Said residue is subjected to an oxidizing fusion'in a reverba- ,eratory furnace,'and thereby converted into blister copper, the nickel being slagged off and retreated in a small blast-furnace. The blister copper is poured hot into refining-furnaces and therein brought to set cop er, carrying 0.3 to one per cent. of nickel. his is then cast into anodes and electrolytically refined to produce cathode copper of 99.94

er cent. purity, the precious metal slimes being treated in any approved manner. The nickel salts accumulating in the acid electrolyte are eriodically separated therefrom and partial y purified from copper by repeated fractional crystallization, the last traces of copper being separated by electrolysis and the nickel salts crystallized for platers" acid and electrolytically precipitating the nickel from the resulting solution, converting the residue into anodes rich in copper and electrolytically refining them, substantially as described. 4 p

3. The herein-described methodof recovering nickel and copper from matte, which consists in treating the matte with heated dilute hydrochloric acid and electrolytically precipitating the nickel from the resultin solution, converting the residue into ano es rich in copper and electrolytically refining them, substantially as described.

4. The herein-described method of recovering nickel and do per from matte, which con sists in treating the matte with heateddilute hydrochloric acid, separating the iron and electrolytically recipitating the nickel from the resulting so ution, converting the residue into anodes rich in copper, and electrolytically refining them, substantially as described. 7

IIC

acid, electrolytically precipitating the nickel from the resulting solution, converting the residueinto anodes rich in copper and electrolytically refining them, and recovering the ing nickel and copper from matte,'which con- .sists in treating the matte with heated dilute hydrochloric acid, separating the iron and electrolytically precipitating the nickel from from t ere the resulting solution, converting the residue into anodes rich in copper and electrolytically refinin them, and recovering the nickel salts p 'ng solution, substantially as 15 described. j

In testimony whereof I affix my, signature in presence of two witnesses.

WOOLSEY- MoA. JOHNSON. Witnesses;

CHARLES M. 'STARKWEATHER JOHN FELT MORRIS. 

